


Death Boy and the Son of Apollo

by NantucketWhales108



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:40:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25942252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NantucketWhales108/pseuds/NantucketWhales108
Summary: Will and Nico starting out their relationship. Takes place after the Heroes of Olympus series.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo & Will Solace
Kudos: 4





	Death Boy and the Son of Apollo

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: All characters mentioned belong to Rick Riordan.
> 
> This takes place after Heroes of Olympus. It does not take place in consideration with any of the events of Trials of Apollo books. In those books, Nico and Will are already together (YAY), but in this story, they are still not together despite the fact that this takes place several months after ToA. So, basically, I know that this doesn't make much sense if you are trying to fit it into the Trials of Apollo series.
> 
> I hope you guys like it!

Nico stood in the shadow of Thalia’s pine tree, having just finished sending an undead messenger to Camp Jupiter in order to check up on Reyna, Frank, and Hazel who were overseeing the many repairs that had to be made after Octavian’s brief time in power. It had been months since the war with Gaea had ended, but Nico could still barely summon a skeleton without passing out. Even now, Nico felt dizzy and weak. He leaned on the trunk of the tree while he waited for his head to clear and his strength to return.

“I told you, no more death magic, doctor’s orders,” a voice from behind Nico said. Nico jumped and spun around, glaring at the head counselor of the Apollo cabin who had somehow managed to sneak up on Nico. Seriously, how did he do that? Usually it was Nico who caused people to jump. Nico’s presence always seemed to startle people. As a son of Hades, he didn’t exactly have the reputation of being the most friendly person. Plus, his powers often scared people. Because of the way people always acted around him, Nico spent years isolating himself from all demigods, Greek and Roman. Now, he was slowly coming to accept that he did have friends and people who accepted him for who he was. Will Solace, on the other hand, was the opposite of Nico in practically every way. While Nico was pale with dark eyes and hair, Will had tanned skin, shaggy blond hair, and bright blue eyes. Will always seemed to be surrounded by an aura of sunlight, like his dad, Apollo. He was the kind of person who drew others to him, even as Nico pushed them away.

“That was months ago,” Nico complained. “I’m fine now.” He tried to take a step forward, intending to walk past Will back into the main area of camp, but as soon as he tried to move, Nico’s legs buckled. Will caught him.

“Oh, yeah,” Will agreed sarcastically, “you’re fine.”

“I am,” Nico muttered stubbornly, using Will’s shoulder to pull himself to his feet and then leaning heavily on Will in order to stay upright. Even as he protested otherwise, Nico knew he wasn’t okay. 9 months after shadow traveling himself, Reyna, Coach Hedge, and the Athena Parthenos halfway across the world and he still couldn’t summon a stupid bone without collapsing.

Will rolled his eyes at Nico, letting their argument rest for the time being. “Come on, Death Boy. Let’s get you to your cabin.”

“Don’t call me that,” Nico grumbled, reluctantly limping along next to Will as Will half carried Nico towards the Hades cabin.

The Hades cabin was not a place that would be considered homey. From the outside, the obsidian cabin had huge columns and on either side of the door, there were torches burning with green light. Above the door was a skull, the symbol of Hades. On the inside, the cabin was dark, with only one relatively small window that let in very little light and the beds looked more like coffins. When Hazel had been living there with him, sheets had been strung up from the ceiling in order to partition off her half of the cabin. Now that she had moved out, the sheets had been taken down and were folded and resting on her neatly made bunk. The cabin had seemed less foreboding with Hazel there and the company had been nice, but, for the most part, Nico didn’t mind having the cabin to himself. He couldn’t imagine having to live in the Hermes cabin where all the bunks were filled with children of Hermes and the many unclaimed campers.

Will helped Nico to his bed and Nico gratefully sat down. Will sat at the edge of the bed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of ambrosia, the food of the gods, and handed it to Nico.

“Here, eat this,” he told Nico. Nico did and immediately started to feel a little better.

“Better?” Will asked with a smile.

Nico nodded. “Thanks.”

Will stood. “Sleep should help too.” He started to leave to let Nico rest, then turned back. “Seriously Nico. No more death magic. I mean it.” Too tired to argue, Nico just nodded and let himself fall back against the pillows and close his eyes. Distantly, he heard the door to his cabin open and close as Will left, then Nico was asleep.

*****

Like always, Nico dreamed. For the last few months, Nico had been having several recurring nightmares. This time, Nico dreamed about his past after getting out of the Lotus Hotel, forced to relive many of his worst memories. While not pleasant, it could have been worse. Nico could have dreamed about his forgotten life when he lived in Italy or, the worst and most common of his nightmares, his time spent in Tartarus and then as the giant’s prisoner.

In the dream, Nico was 10 again, standing by the cliff outside Westover Hall, his old boarding school, frozen and terrified as Dr. Thorne attacked him and Bianca while Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, and Grover tried to protect them. Nico watched them seemingly fearlessly attack the manticore, but, despite their best efforts, they began to be pushed back, their attacks turning into defense. Suddenly, a volley of arrows showered down on the monster, the Hunters of Artemis pouring out of the woods. Thorne threw himself off the cliff with Annabeth still on his back. Nico watched as Percy tried to go after Annabeth, only to be held back by the Hunters.

Later, Nico stood across from Bianca as she told him that she had decided to join the Hunters of Artemis. He loved his sister, but felt betrayed by her decision to leave him alone.

Nico’s dream shifted and Nico was standing with Percy by the dining pavilion, begging him to take care of Bianca and make sure that nothing happened to her. Percy promised to keep her safe and Nico believed him. He had seen Percy in action. There was no way that he wouldn’t be able to protect her.

Percy came back from his quest and took Nico aside. They stood together in almost the same spot where Nico had asked Percy to keep Bianca safe. Percy had handed him the small figurine saying that Bianca wanted him to have it. Nico’s pain at his loss turned into anger and he took it out on Percy. He screamed at him, saying that he knew that he shouldn’t have trusted Percy. Nico blamed Percy for his sister’s death. He understood now that it hadn’t been Percy’s fault and that he had tried to save Bianca, but in his dream the pain and sorrow felt fresh and the anger strong. Then, the skeleton warriors appeared behind Percy and, despite his anger, Nico couldn’t let them hurt Percy. He made the earth open and swallow them. While Percy stared at him in amazement, Nico told him that he wished that Percy was dead. Then, scared of his own powers, Nico ran off into the woods, ignoring Percy as he called after him.

Nico’s dream shifted again. He was at Triple G Ranch tied up by Geryon who wanted to sell him to the Titan army. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover showed up and saved Nico even though the last thing Nico wanted was to be saved by any of them, but especially not Percy. Next, Nico was blindly following the ghost of Minos as he whispered in Nico’s ear promising help, all while swaying Nico’s actions to benefit himself.

After the Battle of the Labyrinth, Nico was back at Camp Half-Blood, but, as he told Percy, he didn’t belong there just like Hades didn’t belong on Olympus. Nico leaves again, despite Percy’s assurances that Nico does belong there.

A couple months later, Nico was leading Percy through the Underworld. He had told Percy that they were going to the River Styx which would allow Percy to defeat Kronos, but Nico had tricked him. Instead, they were going to Hades’ palace. In exchange for giving Hades Percy, Nico had been promised information about his mother. Percy was thrown into the dungeon and Nico learned that it was one of the furies in disguise that had been the lawyer to remove Nico and Bianca from the Lotus Hotel. Feeling guilty about betraying Percy, Nico broke him out of the dungeon and brought him to the River Styx as they had originally planned.

Still desperate to learn about his mother’s death, Nico tries to summon the ghost of his mother. Despite Bianca’s warning not to, Nico watches how Zeus destroyed the hotel that they were in, killing Nico’s mother and how Hades then had the fury Alecto erase his and Bianca’s memories of their mothers death and place them in the Lotus Hotel.

Finally knowing the truth, Nico stormed up to his father and somehow managed to convince Hades to help the other gods in their stand against Kronos. After the Battle of Manhattan was over, Nico was welcomed back to Camp Half-Blood as a hero, but that didn’t last long. Soon, campers were jumping again whenever Nico appeared out of the shadows near them. The feeling that he didn’t belong started to grow again and Nico left camp for the second time.

After the war with Gaea ended in August, Will had told Nico that it had been Nico who had isolated himself from the other campers and that if he had given them the chance they would have become his friends. Nico was starting to believe this and was feeling more at home at camp everyday.

After leaving, Nico spent most of his time in his father’s realm wandering among the ghosts, listening to them wishing for memories of their pasts.

*****

A loud knocking sounded on the door to Nico’s cabin, interrupting his dream and waking him up. Blearily, Nico sat up and rubbed his eyes. He pushed back the covers and stumbled to the door, throwing it open. Will stood there.

“Hey, Nico,” he started, then paused. “Uh, did I wake you up?” Nico nodded. He had fallen asleep in his clothes, so they were now very wrinkled. His hair, which never did what he wanted and always looked messy, even after Nico brushed it, was no doubt looking worse than usual and sticking up in every direction. For some reason, he suddenly felt self-conscious. Why would he feel self-conscious? It was only Will.

“Nico?” With a start, Nico realized that, while he was worrying about his appearance, Will had been talking to him.

“Yeah? Sorry,” Nico muttered, “I guess I’m not completely awake yet.”

Will smiled understandingly. “I said that I was sorry that I woke you and I asked if you were going to go to the camp fire tonight. You slept all afternoon, so it starts in just a couple of hours.” Nico looked around and realized that the sun was now low on the horizon, unlike when he had fallen asleep and it was high in the sky.  
Nico shrugged. “I don’t know…”

“Come on,” Will said. “It’ll be fun.” Nico hesitated, but already he could feel his resolve crumbling. There was something about Will that made it impossible for Nico to say no to him.

“Fine,” Nico sighed, giving in. Will grinned at him and Nico felt himself smile back, trying to ignore how much he liked the fact that he had made Will happy.

“See you in a bit,” Will said, turning to leave. “I’ll save you a seat!”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked it! Leave a comment.


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